Many school classrooms now encourage or require the use of handheld calculators in various math classes. During an examination, the mobile devices may be placed in an “exam mode” that may allow certain functionality of the handheld devices to be limited. For example, on TI-Nspire™ handhelds, a built-in Press-to-Test feature allows a user to easily comply with the rules for the use of calculators in exams by temporarily disabling all current documents and denying access to programming libraries. A blinking LED located at the top of an educational device handheld, such as the TI-Nspire™ or TI-83 Premium CE, may provide invigilators with a way to quickly and confidently see that a candidate's handheld is operating in Press-to-Test mode. After the exam, handhelds are easily restored for classroom use by exiting Press-to-Test mode and all previously created documents may be restored.
With ever increasing frequency, school classrooms are equipped with a classroom learning system in which digital devices, e.g., handheld calculators, for student use are connected to a host computer used by the teacher. Such a classroom learning system allows a teacher to perform actions such as creating and managing lessons, transferring files between the computer and the digital devices, monitoring student activity on the digital devices using screen captures, polling, assessments, etc., and performing various interactive activities with the students. Various tools are also provided for creating, distributing, and analyzing educational content. The TI-Nspire Navigator™ System from Texas Instruments Incorporated is an example of such a classroom learning system.
Other features of the present embodiments will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description that follows.